"We looked at states that have had hand-held cell phone bans in place for the longest times," said Russ Rader, a representative of the Highway Loss Data Institute, which is a research wing of the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "We found that there was no change in the crash trends before compared to after the laws banning cell phone use were put in place."

The study also compared crash rates in the District with those in Maryland and Virginia, which don't have laws restricting driver cell phone use, and found that crash rates were similar.

Methinks crashes caused by distraction are caused by distraction, not a particular device. And people who let themselves get distracted always have and will continue to find distractions, whether they have a cell phone or not.